North Dakota Homelessness Has Stark Increase in 2017

Homelessness increased nationwide for the first time in seven years. The suspected reason behind the increase is due to an evident increase in rents throughout most of the western U.S.

In North Dakota, state and local planning agencies found that 1,089 people were homeless. While over two-thirds of those were found in transitional housing programs or emergency shelters, 331 were unsheltered. The state also had the largest percent increase of individuals without a permanent residence in the country at 26 percent.

Despite the staggering increase, the number of people with children who are currently homeless dropped 1.5 percent in the past year. Veteran homelessness drastically dropped 36.2 percent since 2016.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development put an emphasis on tracking the progress of the reduction of homeless youth recently. The number of youth and children that were homeless this year was counted at 80.